NEW COMMUNICATIONS MINISTER ADMITS HIS APPOINTMENT

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KUWAIT 000657

SIPDIS

STATE FOR NEA/ARPI
EB/CIP/BA FOR AGIBBS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/01/2016
TAGS: ECON ECPS BEXP PGOV PINR KU
SUBJECT: NEW COMMUNICATIONS MINISTER ADMITS HIS APPOINTMENT
WAS POLITICAL; BUT LAYS OUT AMBITIOUS PLANS ANYWAY


Classified By: Ambassador Richard LeBaron for reason 1


1. (C) Summary and Comment: During a February 22 meeting
with the Ambassador, new Minister of Communications Dr.
Ismail Al-Shatti said that the main reason for his
appointment to the Cabinet is his twenty-five year friendship
with the new Prime Minister. He also cited his leadership
within the Islamic Constitutional Movement (ICM) as another
reason for his appointment. The Minister laid out a number
of plans and projects within the communications, civil
aviation and ports sectors, all under his purview, including
significant privatization and e-government plans. Comment:
During our meeting, Dr. Al-Shatti repeatedly described
himself as a "futurist" and laid out a number of scenarios
for future regional and economic development. While his
appointment was clearly for political reasons, it will be
interesting to watch the efforts and accomplishments of this
new Minister. End Summary and Comment.

New Minister Tells Us Why He Was Chosen...
--------------


2. (C) During a February 22 meeting with the Ambassador, new
Minister of Communications Dr. Ismail Al-Shatti was candid
about the reasons why he was chosen as a Minister. The first
and most important reason he cited was his twenty-five year
friendship with new Prime Minister Shaykh Nasser Al-Mohammed
Al-Sabah. "I am a close friend," he said, "I need to help
him." The second reason that he cited for his inclusion in
the Cabinet was because "everything is new, it's a new era."
Finally, he said, the third reason is that he belongs to the
Islamic Constitutional Movement (ICM). He said that the ICM
had asked to be included in the new Cabinet and had presented
five names for potential Ministerial appointments. His name
was at the top of the list, he said, so, given his links to
the PM, he was selected. Al-Shatti said that he was in
Washington, DC when he received the call asking him to become
a Minister.

...And Why Others Weren't
--------------


3. (C) Al-Shatti acknowledged that "liberals are not happy"
with the makeup of the new Cabinet, but he explained how they
had missed an opportunity to help shape it. He said that the
GOK had offered to make former Parliamentary Financial and
Economic Committee Chairman Abdulwahab Al-Haroun the new
Commerce Minister but that "the liberals had insisted on
keeping (previous Minister of Commerce Abdullah) Al-Taweel,"
and would not supply a list of other candidates. The GOK did
not want to keep Al-Taweel, he explained, so they instead
chose Dr. Yousef Al-Zalzalah, a choice, he implied, that did
not make the liberals happy.

"My Way Is To Privatize"
--------------


4. (C) Al-Shatti made it clear that he was going to try to
put his personal imprint on the Ministry. "My way is to
privatize," he declared, and then went on to describe some of
the initial meetings he has already had with his staff in his
first few weeks on the job. He said that he had just met
that day with the management of the Kuwait City International
Airport (KCIA) and had asked them to privatize as much as
possible. He specifically mentioned catering and mechanical
services as potential targets for privatization. He also
said that he wanted to plot out the privatization of Kuwait
Airways Company (KAC),but that the process "needed a proper
transition period."


5. (C) The Minister said that he also wanted to privatize
the postal service, by giving out licenses to operate the
post within Kuwait. Ministry of Communications buildings and
Post Offices scattered throughout Kuwait could be
reconfigured to accommodate a new "GOK mall," he explained,
which would include access to all government entities in one
location. Al-Shatti recognized the difficulties in carrying
out these privatization efforts before the National Assembly
elections in 2007 and the likely appointment of a new
Cabinet, but said that he is "serious to do this in my
limited time."

E-Government And "Inflation Of Administration"
-------------- -


6. (C) Al-Shatti remarked that a recent memorandum of
understanding between the GOK and the Government of Singapore
was only one part of a broader effort to bring e-government
to Kuwait. He said that his first step would be to create a
"directory of services" with listings for every conceivable
service that is provided by the GOK, which he estimated at
greater than 3,000 different services. He added that this
directory would then help him to understand what services are
actually being provided and "how many employees we really
need for these functions." This would allow him "to explore
the inflation of administration" in Kuwait, he said, clearly
acknowledging the excess size of the government sector.

Minister Responsive On Bilateral Issues
--------------


7. (C) The Ambassador brought to the Minister's attention a
long-standing billing dispute between AT&T and the Ministry
of Communications (MOC) and the Minister promised he would
look into it. The Ambassador also asked about the
as-yet-unsigned Open Skies Agreement and the ground handling
issue. Al-Shatti said that he would look into it, and
although he wanted to "open competition to all", he was not
sure if the foreign airlines could be allowed to handle their
own baggage without providing the services to others. (Note:
We will follow up on this issue.)

Port Security A Top Priority
--------------


8. (C) (Note: The Kuwait Ports Authority (KPA) falls under
the responsibility of the Minister of Communications.)
Al-Shatti said that he met with Kuwait's top port officials
on his first day in office and told them that "security is
the most important issue" for him. He said that Kuwait's
ports should satisfy all necessary security and safety
conditions in order to be on the "white list" of good ports
worldwide. He said that shortly after he met with his port
officials, Ministry of Interior officials came to him and
said that they have a dispute with the ports employees and
that certain security conditions "were not being met." He
asked them to prepare a tender to establish the necessary
conditions and meet all requirement and that this tender
would be released shortly.

A Futurist, And A Dreamer
--------------


9. (C) Al-Shatti referred to himself numerous times as a
"futurist" noting his involvement with the Millennium Project
organized by the American Council for the United Nations
University. He said that he has done significant work with
the Millennium Project, collaborating with Rand Corporation
employees and others on developing future scenarios. He said
that one of his scenarios, and what he described as "one of
(his) dreams," was to build a port in Boubyan Island and link
it "by a corridor" all the way through Iraq and Jordan "to
Gaza and Haifa." He paused for a second and then,
recognizing that the new "Islamist" Minister appeared to be
advocating trade with and through Israel, added "but I can't
say Haifa yet."


10. (C) He explained that, with a corridor from Kuwait and
Iraq to Jordan and Gaza, oil refineries and other oil product
plants could be built in Gaza "and would help the Middle East
crisis." He said that such a project could be viable by

2010. Al-Shatti also identified the southern Oman port of
Salalah as a potential southern point for a Middle East trade
corridor. Along with these trade corridors, he called for a
"new map of pipelines" for the region.


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For more reporting from Embassy Kuwait, visit:
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/kuwait/?cable s

Visit Kuwait's Classified Website:
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/kuwait/
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LEBARON